It's like Hackers but in real life!
The Telegraph has killed Prince Philip
The Telegraph newspaper accidentally published an obit of the Duke of Edinburgh, instead of reporting his retirement from official duty today. Google News headlines this morning. The headline of the article read: "HOLD HOLD HOLD Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh dies aged XXX," with the subhead: "Prince Philip waves goodbye to …
COMMENTS
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 12:32 GMT Lee D
Re: But, but, but
Irony: I bet there's a button that goes between "hold" and "release" on their CMS anyway.
Some doughnut probably just unticked the wrong article.
You'd think it would need some kind of editorial sign-off before it went out but obviously having a two-stage publishing process was obviously too much in the way of holding back the news, eh?
I know if I was an editor, I'd want someone (sub-editors, etc.) to have to sign off and approve everything pushed to the web before it appeared publicly. And that would be AFTER the article-writer had clicked the "Publish" button.
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 13:52 GMT Lee D
Re: But, but, but
Then what was an article about a non-current news item doing being in the "request release" queue anyway?
Problems like this are solved by processes, not tech. Until someone says "Publish this" and then the guy above him says "Yes, this needs to be published", why should it appear on the front page at all.
If nothing else, one single rogue employee could splat any kind of junk on your front page if they wanted to leave while giving management a message...
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Thursday 3rd August 2017 14:59 GMT Doctor Syntax
Re: Proof of the Illuminati
"He died from being given a Speedball by the royal doctor"
With the timing being news management so it would catch next morning's Times instead of being announced first on the wireless where it would be heard by men in pubs wearing caps - or something like that.
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 14:08 GMT Ol'Peculier
Before the Interwebs, an English cleaner was working in a TV station in Australia where they were rehearsing an obit on the Queen's death. On hearing this, she rang her mother who still lived in the UK with the news.
Mother then rings local radio station to ask if they can confirm the Queen had died. Who duly broadcast such news...
(might have been about '93 as I was working in the media sector then)
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 21:12 GMT albaleo
In the late 80s, an English language newspaper in Japan published an obituary for the Emperor Hirohito, who was ill at the time. I remember reading it on my morning break and wondering what the folk in the news office would be doing right then.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/28/world/2-pay-dearly-for-affront-to-hirohito.html
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 14:17 GMT Ralph the Wonder Llama
Operation Forth Bridge
Let's see - been around for ages, slightly decrepit and due to be superseded? Check. Some people have died maintaining it? Check. Probably. No longer needs painting all the time? Check. Goes on a bit? Check. Not a known promoter of minorities? Check. No longer requires a tithe? Ah. Oh well.
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 14:23 GMT Tim Brown 1
it would never have happened in my day!
I worked there starting in 1995 shortly after the Telegraph had launched (in November 1994) the UK's (World's?) first daily news website as Electronic Telegraph.
At the time, we did nightly updates taking copy from the print edition to put online. Each edition was produced by just three people to start with. On the nights I was on shift, one of my tasks was to check through the whole update for problems before putting it live.
I never, ever let any problems slip through...
and never ever had to race back to Canary Wharf in the middle of the night to fix things....
honestly....
Oh and coincidentally, the original deskspace for the site on the 11th floor of One Canada Square was right next to obituaries!
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Thursday 3rd August 2017 14:52 GMT Nick Kew
Re: it would never have happened in my day!
Tim, I remember the Torygraph online. I was living&working in Italy at the time, and suddenly I had access to a newspaper from home. I think the Grauniad appeared around the same time, but was less usable, or perhaps carried a lot less material, 'cos it was the Torygraph that shone.
Then in about 1996 they changed it all to some dysfunctional table-driven layout. On the connections we had back then (the information dirt-track) it meant nothing would render until a whole page loaded, which was several minutes. RIP the Torygraph as a usable website: the Grauniad now did a better (or less bad) job.
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 15:44 GMT Captain DaFt
It says more about the type of "journalism" the Telegraph has, if it just makes stuff up about palace sources before the event has even happened!
This is SOP for all news agencies.
Obits for the rich, famous, and/or powerful are prepared well in advance and updated regularly so they're ready to go the instance they get the word that someone important has joined the choir invisible.
This wasn't supposed to have been released until they'd heard from the palace sources, with date and time added.
Someone at the Telegraph screwed up, bigtime!
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 17:06 GMT Anonymous Coward
I've nothing against the the royal family personally, I'm sure they are a very nice bunch of people (mostly) but I think a modern democracy deserves an elected head of state, what could possibly go wrong with that ?
Hmmm, looks across Atlantic and decides to do a volte face.
On second thought's let's just have an elected (or abolished) House of Lords instead and keep the Queen.
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 20:18 GMT Anonymous Coward
I've nothing against the the royal family personally, I'm sure they are a very nice bunch of people (mostly) but I think a modern democracy deserves an elected head of state, what could possibly go wrong with that ?
I think it's more important for a democracy to have an elected head of government, but then what do I know?
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 20:52 GMT Anonymous Coward
"I think it's more important for a democracy to have an elected head of government, but then what do I know?"
Electing one person to run the country has always seemed to me a really stupid idea. Recently a number of countries have seemed anxious to prove it.
I think the idea of a ceremonial head of government with a theoretical veto power on stupid ideas is a good one. I'd be happy for it to be an election provided that nobody who had ever belonged to any political party whatsoever or who had stood as a candidate in any other election was allowed to stand (which rules me out, though I repented of my folly).
Elected functional Head of State kind of works in multi-party countries like Germany and France, but not in 2-party or 1-party countries like the US and the UK.
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Thursday 3rd August 2017 10:56 GMT MJI
Re: House of Lords
Advantages of non elected people in positions of power.
They are in it for the long game, not just the next election.
So this means that the Lords have to do what is best for the UK and not the government.
The Queen also holds a lot of power. She can sack the government, and the military swear allegiance to her.
This does mean we could never get an extremist government as all the Monarch has to say is to order her Generals to take the cabinet to the tower.
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Thursday 3rd August 2017 15:06 GMT Doctor Syntax
"I think a modern democracy deserves an elected head of state, what could possibly go wrong with that ?"
The standard answer is that you always get a politician. And then we discovered what can go wrong when ypu get one who isn't.
As to the HoL my preferred solution would be to have at least a good proportion ex-officio from such bodies as the Royal Society and the chartered professional bodies. Of course they'd be experts and get disregarded. What the HoC really doesn't want is an elected HoL, they like their unrivalled status as the elected chamber.
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 17:48 GMT Anonymous Coward
This happened to Dave Swarbrick, English fiddle player of some repute, whose death was falsely reported in a national newspaper years ago. Ironically this got wider coverage than his actual death as that sad event occurred on the same day as that of some ex-boxer with a higher TV profile.
( IIRC he offered signed copies of his premature obituary at concerts for a while, until the paper claimed copyright )
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Wednesday 2nd August 2017 19:45 GMT Alistair
Himself.
Very likely had a nice chuckle over a premature obit.
All things said, if I'm still able to stand at attention while a wack of folks roughly one quarter my age strut around and salute me at my retirement, and then manage to stumble a block or two to the car when I'm 96, I'll be laughing at the morons that slip up and publish my obit early. 96, and still mobile. Mind, my maternal grandpa was lugging groceries home for his next door neighbour in a 94F heatwave in Colulmbus OH when he kicked off.....
(Canadian, and I rather like our monarchical ties, in the form we keep them).
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Thursday 3rd August 2017 10:09 GMT CrazyOldCatMan
Re: What a pity, these German impostors are not dead yet!
The Duke is Greek by birth.
However (and without wishing to appear to support the OP), he is a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg who are most definately of German origin.
Yes - his birth family were of the Greek and Danish Royal families but (given how prolific Victoria was) that doesn't stop them being of British & German extraction.
What I'm trying to say is that you are both right..
(I think I'm turning into a politician. Shomeone schtop me!)
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Thursday 3rd August 2017 14:55 GMT JJKing
Phil the Greek
I am not a monarchist and fail to see their relevance in their ex-colonies, especially the one in which I live.
A lot has been said about Phil the Greek and he has certainly come out with some verbal howlers over the years but let's not forget that he was one of "that special generation" who saw combat during the Second World War and for that, like all veterans of all conflicts, he deserves our sincerest thanks. Even Lizzie pulled on a uniform and did her bit.